The Culture Importance In International Project Management
The most crucial element in international projects is culture. Any culture understanding is based on an attitude of open-mindedness, response, and flexibility. No culture should be taken as superior than another. A supportive project culture allows us for focusing on customs, habits and behaviors. Culture understanding supports the achievement of a given task and functions as a common reference for communication to all parties involved in the international project.
But why many international projects fail?
Because they lack alignment of organizational strategies and projects are managed in one to one basis instead having a standard methodology with reusable project documents for cohesiveness and measurement criteria. They lack a PMO structure; even if this structure is small, it will help the company to deal with changes, cultural diversity, and the support for a project manager to succeed.
The international project manager needs to be able to influence people in a way that turns them from project challenges into allies. Remember that an international set-up, the picture is even more complicated. Given the high degree of cultural diversity, a successful international project manager needs not only to be an excellent politician, but also a superb cross-culture communicator. The project manager must be able to establish trust between the major stakeholders, customer, and team.
Therefore, some the critical success criteria for international projects are management methods suitable for a dynamic, complex, fast change environment, people management, and culture management.
Don’t forget that a person’s body language may express something quite different from what they are saying.
So, next time you have to negotiate an agreement, run a meeting, ask your wife/husband to do something for you, or buy a new car, think about your emotions first, then use the five component criteria (appreciation, inclusion, freedom, importance, and role), and you’ll see more positive outcome from your actions.
april 5, 2017 Share:
Author
Giana Rosetti is an electrical engineer and a PMP certified with a successful track record directing projects and programs at Project Management Office (PMO) level with a combined knowledge of engineering, research and analysis.